


Of Dinner Jackets And Coattails

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: Episode Tag, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Tuxedos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-06
Updated: 2012-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-30 17:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/334231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor can't stop looking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Dinner Jackets And Coattails

**Author's Note:**

> Episode tag to (and therefore spoilers for) episode 3.06.

This was so not the time for it, but Connor couldn’t seem to help himself.

Never mind that they were on the run from their own government, stuck out here in the middle of nowhere in this dilapidated old cabin with no TV, no Internet, and no mobile phones.They’d dealt with _that_ problem by sort of ignoring it for the time being, choosing instead to play at dress-up and dancing while they waited for something to happen.

No, it was the rather more immediate situation that was giving him that guilty squirming sensation in the pit of his stomach.The fact that, even though he was dancing with Abby, he was _looking_ at someone else.

He knew every particle of his attention should be on the woman in his arms.Abby looked stunning in her gown, the playful glint in her eyes and her bubbly laughter infectious and captivating.

Except that he _wasn’t_ captivated.He couldn’t seem to stop his eyes sliding from her face as they spun round the room.Couldn’t stop his gaze wandering over her shoulder to focus on the man slouched nonchalantly against the wall, watching their antics with an amused, indulgent smile creasing his features.

It wasn’t even like Danny Quinn was that good-looking – ‘craggy’ was the word he’d heard Sarah use in conversation with Abby the other day, eavesdropping when he was supposed to be working on the artefact.

But there was something about him.Something that drew you in.He had…what did they call it?Charisma, yes, that was it.Charisma, a friendly smile, and an easygoing nature that allowed him to get on with everyone.

And he looked damn good in a tux.

He was just getting swept up in the moment, Connor decided firmly.This whole situation was completely surreal, and wasn’t getting any less so.With an effort, he wrenched his attention back to Abby, smiling down at her and ignoring the man in the white dinner jacket watching them dance.

*   *   *   *   *

Of course, several hours later, they were all looking a little the worse for wear, Sarah and Abby’s dresses the casualties of a cross-country run, and both Connor and Danny’s tuxes missing several elements, leaving the former looking rather like a tramp, and the latter not too dissimilar to a waiter in a seedy back-street bistro.

Sarah sighed as she looked down at her ruined attire.“Those beautiful clothes,” she mourned.“It’s such a shame.”

Abby nodded, although Connor couldn’t help but notice that she was pulling off the black-leggings-and-half-an-evening-gown combo rather well.Like most things, it just seemed to suit her.

Danny shrugged in a ‘I was only doing it to humour you girls anyway’ manner, and started talking to Becker about the possibility of arranging some slightly better safe houses in case they should need one again in the future.

Connor sighed, and wandered over to one of the workbenches, setting the artefact back in its cradle carefully before glancing back towards his teammates.He was absolutely _not_ mourning the loss of a white dinner jacket and black bow tie, he told himself.Clothes were a girly concern, and he refused to let himself be sucked in.

He decided to head for the locker room to get changed.Clothes might be a female preoccupation, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware that he looked slightly idiotic hanging around in only half a tuxedo.Danny, he noticed, didn’t seem bothered at all.

But as he was standing in front of his open locker (and wouldn’t you know it, there was only a t-shirt in there – looked like was going to be stuck with his adopted trousers for a little while longer), he found his mind drifting off, running back over the events of the day.

As such, he wasn’t aware that anyone else had come into the room until someone suddenly twanged one of the braces that were still hanging from his trousers.He jumped and turned quickly (and that was totally _not_ a yelp that issued from his mouth) to find Danny watching him in amusement.

“Maybe the girls were right,” the other man said, without preamble.

“About what?” Connor asked, confused.

“About the clothes.It _does_ seem a shame.After all, they’d been tucked away for over sixty years, preserved until we came along.Same with the cabin.That ended up wrecked too.”

“I think that was more the fault of the Terror Birds, actually,” Connor said wryly.“I would have been perfectly happy for it to remain intact.”

“I’m guessing this job doesn’t allow for many opportunities for getting dressed up and looking smart,” Danny continued.“I think we proved today that evening wear isn’t really compatible with running for your life, and I can’t see us being invited to any fancy government soirees in the near future, can you?”

Connor cocked his head slightly.“You don’t strike me as the kind of person who holds much truck with looking smart,” he observed, resolutely ignoring the reminders his brain was providing of what Danny _did_ look like when he was all dressed up.

“Oh, I don’t know.There’s a time and a place for everything,” Danny mused.“Sometimes it’s nice to see how people scrub up.”

Connor swallowed.Danny was looking at him rather intently all of sudden, and he was abruptly having trouble gathering his thoughts.“I was surprised to see how well _you_ scrub up,” he blurted, and then mentally slapped himself.

_Great, let him know you thought he looked hot_ and _insult him all in one go, why don’t you?_ _Way to go, Connor._

But Danny just half-smiled at him, and then gestured in his direction.“You didn’t look so bad yourself.”

“Er…thanks…I…”Connor’s thoughts were becoming more scattered, not less, and he waved his hands around meaninglessly, suddenly noticing with absurd clarity that despite the tuxedo he’d still left his gloves on, and wasn’t that a stupid thing to have done?

“About as good at accepting compliments as giving them, I see.”Danny sounded amused now, and suddenly he was a _lot_ closer.Close enough for Connor to make out the details of the dirty smudges on his white shirt, to differentiate between the grey of the bark rubbings, and the green of the grass stains.

“Let’s just say we both looked good, and leave it at that, hmmm?”Danny’s voice was low, and full of laughter, and Connor could only nod wordlessly in response, trying not to notice how the movement was _almost_ enough to brush his hair across Danny’s face.Almost, but not quite.

His hands had stopped flapping now, but they were still shifting restlessly at his sides, right up until the moment that Danny caught hold of them and pressed them against the lockers, effectively pinning Connor in place with his hands and his eyes.

“So, Connor,” said Danny, still in that same low, humour-filled voice.“Are you going to get changed or not?”

“Er…”

“Because, good as we might have looked, I really think it’s time we got out of these tuxes, don’t you?”


End file.
